On Wednesday morning, if all goes as planned, a flotilla of 60 paddlers – perhaps many more – will launch their craft onto the St. Croix River in Solon Springs, Wis., for a monumental trip down its entire length.

Hopefully, all will go as planned. Because not all has gone as planned in organizing the trip.

The St. Croix River Association, which has been planning the 15-day trip since January to mark its own 100th anniversary and bring exposure to the river, was forced to call several audibles over the past few weeks.

First, the National Park Service, which has permitted the trip because of its size, notified organizers that paddling a portion of the Upper St. Croix would be too dangerous because the water is too low.

That might seem odd in a year in which much of the Upper Midwest has suffered from floods, and lakes and streams are swelled in northwest Wisconsin. But, thanks to a meteorological quirk, the upper reaches of the St. Croix missed much of the spring rainfall.

“It’s bizarre, but it’s true,” said Deb Ryan, the group’s executive director. “It made me truly cry to know we would have to leave the river for a day or two.”

The solution: have paddlers take out after the second day’s paddle. Organizers will shuttle everyone and their boats and gear to the Namekagon, which is running high. Local outfitters will help. The paddlers will put in on the “Nami,” spend a night at Howell Landing, about 15 miles northwest of Trego, Wis., and the next day follow the Nami until it empties into the St. Croix.

Problem Two arose as the threat of a Minnesota state government shutdown rose. The original plan had been to spend nights at three state campgrounds, but as the threat grew that Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders would not reach an agreement on a budget for the next two years, trip planners changed their plans.

“We couldn’t take the risk,” Ryan said last week, when it wasn’t known whether the shutdown would happen.

Planners were able to secure overnight stays at both private and public lands instead, although the changes have forced one day’s paddle to stretch to 20 miles, a potentially tedious distance for those without stroke-hardened muscles. Most days include paddles of 10 to 12 miles.

“It’ll be harder, but we’ll be fine,” Ryan said. “We’ll switch people out of kayaks and into canoes if they get tired.”

The registration period to join the paddle and camp with the group has expired, but the waterway is public, and organizers welcome day-trippers, as long as they bring their own supplies and understand that they won’t be permitted to camp with the larger group.

Ryan said she has received calls from “hundreds” of potential day-trippers, meaning the event could make for one of the largest flotillas parts of the pristine upper river have ever seen.

The paddle, titled “Be Moved,” has attracted a large number of canoeists and kayakers from as far away as England, many of whom have never paddled the river, which is designated as a Wild and Scenic River by the National Park Service.

And that’s exactly the point, Ryan said, for the river and her organization, which bills itself as “the oldest citizen-based, conservation-oriented organization in Wisconsin and Minnesota.” Ryan noted, “We’ve been around all these years, but we’re practically invisible.”

More information on the trip, as well as day-to-day itineraries – not all of which were updated with changes last week – can be found at the group’s websites: StCroixRiverAssociation.org and SCRApaddle.org.

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